Page - 342 - in Biodiversity and Health in the Face of Climate Change

342 Smaller working groups and interactive sessions provided a unique opportunity for cross-sectoral exchange among policy makers at the national and regional levels. Participants identified opportunities and challenges associated with mainstreaming biodiversity and health linkages across sectors, highlighted data gaps and needs, and discussed how to strengthen policy coherence across sectors and global policy commitments in line with the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Discussions also provided valuable input to supporting implementation on the ground and supporting policy developments. At the global level, for example, insights were discussed in view of the preparation of a biodiversity-inclusive One Health guidance prepared by the CBD-Secretariat in collaboration with the WHO, endorsed by CBD Parties and adopted as Recommendation XXI/3 of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) that will inform the outcomes of the 14th meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties.2 Regional capacity-building workshops provide unique opportunities to bridge the frequent gaps between scientific findings and both their relevance and application to real-world policy settings, to foster cross-sectoral dialogue, to raise awareness and to strengthen policy engagement. 15.2.5.4 Main Challenges A number of challenges in supporting biodiversity and health mainstreaming were identified by participants. Examples include: – The need for additional forums and workshops to support implementation of regional and global policy commitments. – The need to better integrate understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes that can help societies to manage the complex socio-ecological systems that encompass health systems, food systems and the way societies plan where and how to live. – The need for more significant investment in preventive measures to reduce the inefficiencies associated with reactive response-driven approaches. – The need to strengthen mainstreaming by integrating health-biodiversity linkages into national strategies and policies for health and for biodiversity, and in those for agriculture, fisheries and food production, planning, climate change and disaster risk reduction, as well as economy and finance. Importantly, it was agreed that while more scientific research is always needed, enough is also known to move to action in many areas. There are a number of no-regret measures that could be better harnessed: investing in nature-based solutions such as the integration of biodiverse green spaces in urban development; better control and use of antimicrobials, pesticides and other biocides; addressing together the drivers of ill health and biodiversity loss; and better monitoring of environmental change. In particular, it is essential to raise further awareness among 2 https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/72d6/b5bb/9244e977048688ec45735d2c/sbstta-21-04-en.pdf H. Keune et al.